The Honest Truth
by blahgal
Summary: Donna, over hearing a phone call from a mysterious man named Larry, figures out Sam is not only a stripper but a married con artist after Hyde's money. Jackie and Donna set out to prove to Hyde that Sam's a con and the girl he should be with is Jackie.JH
1. Chapter 1

Jackie sat stoically, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, and mouth set as she looked at the blond tramp. How could he pick that over her? She loved him; she gave him everything- her heart, her mind, and her soul. She talked to him, she understood him, she broke down the Zen and found things out about him not even the Formans or Eric knew. His best friend didn't know that when he was six, Bud showed up for one of his baseball games. And he damn well didn't know that at the very same baseball game Bud got so drunk off a twelve-pack that he beat up one of the dad's from the other team when his son got him out. The Formans didn't know that when he was ten, Edna took off for two weeks before stumbling back into town drunk as hell with all of the food money lost to the casino in Michigan. It was another week before he had anything suitable to eat. Nobody but him, her, Edna, and some good for nothing drug lord knew that when Hyde was five, he had once been sold for a week's worth of cocaine. Thankfully, the drug lord had given him back after he screamed and bit for a day straight. Edna had given him a lifetime's beating for losing her coke.

"Jackie, do you want to go to the mall?" Donna's voice was tense as she threw out words that Jackie would have been elated to hear any other time.

"Oh, can I come too? I need a new top for one of my acts. The other one got ripped by some rowdy guys the other night." Sam, the whore, asked them with a look on her face that made Jackie sick. How could she look so damn innocent? She had ruined everything. Everything that Jackie had worked so hard to make happy and perfect. Everything she had every wanted and needed was destroyed by a Las Vegas stripper. What had her life come to?

"Oh, sorry. The Point Place Mall has a strict no whore policy." Jackie spat at her, the bitchiness she carried around like a bomb going off. "Let's go, Donna." With that Jackie plucked her purse from the coat hanger and followed her blond friend out the door.

Sipping thoughtfully on her soda, Donna surveyed her best friend. The dark tresses that fell from her head were messy, and the mismatched eyes that were usually filled with delight when they were here had nothing left in them but a look of heart break.

"God, Donna. What did I do? Why did Michael have to show up? Why did he marry her? Why am I such a dumbass?" Jackie buried her face with her hands, trying to hide tears that had yet to escape- even though it had been two days. She had never held tears in for this long, and it was getting hard to stay strong. Donna gazed at her friend and knew she should divulge the information she had accidentally heard. It would either crush her even more or bring back a fighting spirit that had been gone for a month.

"Jackie... you didn't do anything. Sam is scamming Hyde. I heard her on the phon, talking to some guy named Larry, saying stuff about how she was going to con Hyde out of his money and stuff. She's a stripper and a con artist too." Donna stirred her straw and clenched her lips together, wondering how Jackie would react. At first, she thought that maybe she could be Sam's friend. Make her feel welcome. Even if she was a dirty stripper, she was still a person right? Maybe she could even conform Sam to her feminist ways. But as soon as she found out about what Sam was doing, she knew she couldn't do any of those things. She wasn't sure what to do now. If only Eric had been there to help her. If only Eric had been there at all. He always knew what do- even if he didn't like Jackie; he would still say something in his Eric-y way and make everything a little better.

"That...bitch!" Jackie's shrill voice brought attention from the other patrons of the mall, including some curious children. "Opps." The mall-goers turned their attention back to themselves and ignored the two girls. "Does Steven know?" The excitement and urgency in her voice made Donna grin. Jackie's fighting spirit was being reawakened, and Donna was glad. Weepy Jackie, while understandable, just wasn't as fun as kick-ass Jackie.

"Hell no! Even if I told him, it's not like he would believe me. It's Hyde, he's the guy who thinks ABBA isn't just some crappy disco band but a government paid band to place pro-government theories in our heads. God knows he won't believe anything as rational as his new stripper wife being a con." Donna rolled her eyes at the last part of her sentence. It was true; Hyde was a stubborn ass who wasn't going to believe them unless they gave him cold, hard proof.

"Damn it, you're right! I'm never going to get him back. I'll have to end up with someone like...Fez!" Just the thought of being with her foreign friend brought Jackie to tears. "How can we prove it?" The brunette blinked away her tears and regained her drive to crush the whore who stole her man.

Donna contemplated what to say. She had taken a whole day to decide whether or not to tell Jackie. How was she supposed to know what to say right now? Clueless and frustrated, Donna knew that they were going to have to play detective on this one. She tried to remember the exact words she had heard. Clenching her eyes shut, she brought herself back to this morning at the Forman's.

_*Flashback*_

_Donna lunged at the phone, praying it was Eric. Before she could even say hello, she heard two voices wafting through the speaker. Biting her lip, she considered hanging up. It was rude to listen to others people's conversations, but she wanted to know who else was up at 3 a.m. at the Forman's home._

_"Sam? Is that you?" an unfamiliar male voice asked. Donna's breath hitched for a moment. Sam, the new stripper wife, was getting a call from some mystery male in the early morning. If this wasn't suspicious then Donna had never lived with a Nancy Drew lover._

_"Yeah, Larry, it is. Who else would pick up the phone right now? God, you're stupid." An evil sneer was heard in the distinctive voice of Sam. Donna held in a gasp as she continued to listen to the exchange._

_"Sorry, Samie, sorry. So how are we going to get the money outta this Hyde guy?" The man, Larry, was definitely whipped by Sam. You could hear the desperateness to please her dripping from his voice._

_"We aren't going to get the money, Larry. I am. And I'm planning on… Shit, I think I can hear someone breathing on the line. I'll go check it out." Donna, realizing that she had been caught, rammed down the phone back into the receiver and fled the Forman's home, racing back to her house as fast as her legs could carry her._

*_End Flashback*_

"Well, I doubt the marriage is legitimate. Actually, I think she may be married to this Larry dude she was talking too. She has him whipped. We'll have to watch her or something to make sure she doesn't do anything else suspicious. I really want to crush this bitch for 1). Taking Hyde away from you, 2) Scamming Hyde, and 3) her being a stripper totally ruins females'-"

"Blah, blah blah! A bunch of feminist crap. But you're right! If we're going to go all detective and follow her, we're going to need some new outfits." Jackie's melancholy thoughts were pushed to the back of her mind. New ones of proving Sam bad and shopping with her best friend distracted her for the time being as she dragged the blonde out of her chair and into the nearest store.

"I'm glad you decided to dye your hair back. Don't tell anybody I said this, but red hair looks much better on you then blonde." Jackie commented to the newly redheaded Donna. Seeing Donna back to her regular state of carrot red made Jackie feel at ease. Donna being back to normal surged Jackie with hope. If Donna could go back to normal so easily, it was possible so could her and Steven.

Jackie pushed open the basement door with her foot since she had two large shopping bags resting in her hands. An apologetic looking Fez greeted her at the door with a grimace. Still high off of her shopping trip with Donna, Jackie pranced by the dark-skinned foreigner and flopped down on the couch, ignoring the beaming Sam and the Zen Hyde.

Donna followed behind Jackie as she took a seat on the lawn chair. The newly red-headed Donna felt her stomach drop, and she could sense that something devastating was about to happen. Call it feminist intuition, but she could tell that stripper was going to shatter Jackie's heart all over again.

"Donna! And ew, Jackie. I'm so glad you're back! Hyde and I have the best news! We're going to get married again! This time I'll be wearing a big white dress, there will be nice red roses, and people will come with gifts-" Jackie didn't stick around to hear anymore. She was already running full force out of the room with tears blurring her vision. Donna took off after her, but not without first throwing Sam a look filled with the most venom she could muster. Mouthing the words "You'll pay for this," she left the room, desperately trying to catch up with the horrified Jackie.

It didn't seem to matter how far Jackie ran. The words of the blond still haunted her. Married. Big white dress. Again. The last word stung the most. Jackie had tried and failed to get Steven to marry her just once. This con could get him to do it twice.

At some point her feet had stopped moving. It took her a moment to realize why they had. She was here, their special place, the place where she first lied to him about their relationship.

"Jackie, I'm so sorry. She's a bitch. We'll get her back." Donna, who hadn't known how fast Jackie could run, was out of breath. It was shocking to see how broken Jackie was. She had never seen her best friend this upset. The redhead had never seen Jackie shaking so hard even when there was no cold and cry so hard that snot dripped down. And Donna had definitely never seen Jackie look so bad and act so destroyed that she began to question whether or not Donna could help fix her. The tiny brunette seemed empty, shallow. The unicorn-loving girl with a lot of spirit was gone, and Donna was scared.

"He doesn't love me anymore. He never loved me." The voice that came out of Jackie was not her own. Jackie's Burkhart's voice was excited, young, peppy, and maybe even a little shrill. This voice had not even a single trace of one of those qualities. Instead, Donna could hear only numbness and despair. Silently, she cursed Hyde for turning the loud cheerleader into this. A devastated, heartbroken girl. Mentally, Donna made a note to herself to break all of Hyde's Led Zeppelin records.

"Jackie, don't you dare say that! Hyde loves you more then you know. We're going to get her. We're going to fix this mess." Donna didn't say anything else because no more words came to her. No more words were needed. Instead, Donna just wrapped her arms around her best friend and let the tears that used to make her mad cover her because what else are friends for.

**AN/ Well I don't have much to say other than this is an obviously AU take on Season 8. This will eventually be Jackie/Hyde but it'll probably take a while and a lot of work on Donna and Jackie's part. Anyway thank you to my beta reviewgirl911 who's just awesome. Oh and please do review, they always make my day. **


	2. Chapter 2

"You're an asshole! How could you do this to Jackie?" Donna's screaming made Hyde jolt up from his sleeping position on the basement sofa. Turning around Hyde glared at Donna from behind his glasses.

"What the hell!" Hyde said as he turned to face Donna, his face surprised but still nonchalant. Donna couldn't believe him. He was sitting alone in the basement with a beer in hand while he had a con after his money and the girl he loved with a broken heart.

"Jackie loves you. You love her! You were going to propose! You were going to spend the rest of the life with the only person you've ever loved. But you threw it all away- and for what? A Las Vegas stripper you don't even remember meeting? How could you do that to Jackie? How could you do that to yourself? And how the hell could you think marrying Sam again was a good idea?" Donna ranted, feeling tears prickling at her eyes. Jackie and Hyde had to be together. They made each other better people, just like her Eric made her better.

"Donna, this isn't any of your business, okay? And who are you to say I loved Jackie? Besides, Sam said no more sex unless I agreed to a big wedding. And I like sex." Hyde rolled his eyes and grabbed the beer that was sitting on the wagon wheel table. Taking a long sip, he dared Donna to challenge his superb comebacks.

"You're such a dillhole! Don't you dare deny ever loving Jackie. She made you happy. She made you really happy. Sam doesn't make you happy. In fact it looks like you're pretty miserable- and trust me, she's gonna make you way more miserable pretty soon." Donna screamed at the top of her lungs as she thrust her middle finger in his face. Hyde scowled and tried his hardest to ignore her words because he didn't give a damn about a girl who went running to her ex-boyfriend just because he hadn't asked her to marry him right away. Or at least that's what he told himself

"What are you talking about?" He asked the furious redhead. Make him more miserable? He was pretty damn miserable all the time. Hyde doubted his new wife would make him even more so.

"You'll figure it out soon enough," Donna spat as she headed back over to the door. Before she left she bent down to the record case, plucking seven albums from the shelf. Letting the records fall into her hand, she snapped them in half and tossed them over at Hyde. "You broke Jackie's heart. I broke your damn Zeppelin records."

Dear Diary,

This is bullshit. I made a mistake when I let Michael drive me. I could have taken the bus. But my snooty ass refused to ride with a bunch of sweaty poor people, and it made me lose Steven. It made me lose what mattered the most to me. Truthfully, I made myself lose him. It's my fault I lost him just like it's my fault my mom left and my dad went to jail. Everything's my fault. I don't know why I was so stupid. Actually I do- I thought that if I had someone around who loved me and could admit it, I would feel better. Michael loves me, I know he does. But it wasn't the kind of love Steven felt for me. Michael loves me like a sister. A hot sister he wants to do it with but a sister no less. Of course, Michael would come on to me; assume that we were going to do it just because I was hurt. And of course after I said no a couple hundred times he got discouraged, stopped, and then told me about what happened on Scooby-Doo the night before. But Steven walked in before that happened. He walked in when I was most vulnerable, and when Michael was being the biggest ass he could possibly be. Steven always had a talent for that-walking in at the worst moments. And I have a talent for screwing things up. I'm becoming as bad as Eric.

And even though I screwed up so badly, I had still expected us to be okay. I expected us to fight for a week and then make up. Before Sam came into the room, declaring him her new husband, I was sure we were going to make up again. But no- she had to be a lying bitch and convince my Puddin' Pop that he was hers. All I want to do is scratch her ugly little eyes out. And whenever I see him with her, I just want to cry. And whenever I see him all alone, I just want to kiss him and tell him how much I love him. But it's not going to happen because she's got her little stripper ass enticing him with every move she makes. The only reason I think he's still with her is because he doesn't want to be like Bud. He's proving the world wrong and trying to show us that's he's a good person. The only thing is...he should be a good person with me.

Jackie felt more tears trying to fight their way past her eyes so she quickly shut her diary and set it aside. For weeks now she couldn't help herself. Crying just seemed so right- her life was crap after all. She had no television job, she lived in a crappy apartment with Fez, and she had lost the love of her life to a conniving con.

Her head snapped up as the apartment door opened. Clenching her eyes shut and crossing her fingers, she prayed it was Donna. Opening her eyes just a wink, she saw a flash of dark skin and powder blue polyester. Damn. Thankfully after the tacky fabric and unusual skin color for Wisconsin, a tall red-head emerged.

"I am so sorry, my goddesses. That stripper, that beautiful, beautiful stripper, is a whore!" Fez's loud voice shook the room and made Jackie grin. It was just like her foreign friend to burst into the room and make her smile when she needed to the most.

"In case you can't tell Jackie, I told Fez. I think we need someone here to watch Sam and Hyde while we head to Chicago for Kelso's help." Donna bit her lip as she eyed Jackie carefully. Donna wasn't sure if her best friend could keep her cool at the mention of Kelso and Chicago, noticing how Jackie's eyes flamed up at the two words. "Jackie, don't say anything. We need the dillhole's help. He works in the Playboy club, and apparently there are a few girls from Vegas! We're gonna get that nasty whore!" Donna said as she threw a triumphant fist in the air.

Jackie knew it wouldn't be right to hold her mistake over Michael's head forever. Michael was just being Michael, and she was just being stupid. Still Chicago held bad memories, especially of her and Michael. She had screwed everything up there, and Michael was a big part of that. She wasn't sure if going back would ease her pain or make her want to curl into a ball and cry.

"Fine. I'll go. How long are we going for? And what do I need to pack?" Jackie asked as she got up off of the sofa. "What's Fez going to do?" Fez was a horrible liar; it wasn't like he could do any good if someone asked where they were. Anyone could weasel information out of him without lifting a finger. She supposed he could be useful for hiding in corners and creeping on Sam and Steven.

"Just a day or two. I don't know Jackie-just pack light okay. We don't need all of your make-up and crap weighing down my dad's car." Jackie flipped her hair back and frowned.

"Don't worry, Donna. I won't even need a lot make-up. It's not like I'm going to try and loot good for Michael. Dumb, stupid, Michael." Jackie pressed her lips tightly together. She reminded herself once again that it wasn't Kelso's fault. It was hers. She was just going to have to accept it.

"Come on my goddess, I'll help you pack the most unattractive clothes you have," Fez motioned for Jackie to follow him into her bedroom. Jackie left with Fez, leaving Donna all alone in the living room. Looking after Fez and Jackie, Donna made sure she heard the door click before pulling a crumpled paper from her shirt pocket. Grabbing the pen off of the coffee table, Donna flopped onto the couch and continued on with her letter.

Eric, Jackie has to be going nuts. I mean she hasn't really shown I, but I can just tell she's a mess. And all of this is Hyde's fault. Who does he think he is running off to Vegas for no reason other than seeing Jackie in her nightgown and Kelso walking in covered in a towel? I mean, I know Hyde doesn't trust Jackie with Kelso, and I guess I kind of get why but still. He should trust her enough to at least let her explain. When you get back, help me beat some sense into him! Actually...how about you try and hold him back while I kick his ass. Yeah...I think that'll work out best. Anyway Jackie and I are going over to Chicago to see if we can get any info out of Kelso's little playboy friends. Ugh, just thinking about that nasty place that disregards women makes me sick, but I guess it'll work out. I just wish you were here to help me nail this bitch. You know Hyde almost as well as Jackie does-you would be able to tell how unhappy he is...he's really unhappy Eric. And I'm scared we won't be able to make him happy again.

God, Eric, I can't wait till you come home. I really need your help. But by the time you're scheduled to come back, it might be too late. I miss you and I love you. And you know what- Jackie and Hyde's crappy relationship is making me realize how lucky we are. We're so lucky we can admit it and fight for it so easily. Poor Jackie's going to have to fight so hard to win Hyde back. Anyway, just remember what we have when you're getting bit up by all those evil bugs. And don't look at the African girls who dance around with their boobs hanging out!

Love,

Donna

Donna stuck the note back into her pocket just as Fez and Jackie emerged from Jackie's room with only one small suitcase in tow.

"I'm ready to go." Jackie gave Donna a small smile as she held up her suitcase in the air. Jackie was truthful by saying she wasn't going to pack anything great. A few outfits, toiletries, and she was done.

"Okay...Fez you know the plan, right? Eh, I guess it doesn't matter. Let's go Jackie."

An Elton John song played in the background as Donna and Jackie cruised down the country roads of southern Wisconsin. The dense forest around them was whizzing by as Donna pressed hard on the gas. Technically, she was speeding, but she didn't give a damn. And Jackie wasn't really paying attention to the road either. Nobody ever drove out here. Walter's Road wasn't really a road; it was more of a tractor path.

From behind an Alfa Romeo rammed into the Cadillac. Both Jackie and Donna were thrown forward for a moment before slamming back into their seats roughly.

Moans and curses filled the car as Donna and Jackie rubbed their arms and legs, trying to stop the aching pain. When it subsided they turned their heads around to face the car behind them.

"Son of a bitch! What dumbass rams their car into the only other car on the entire freaking road?" Donna yelled as she threw open the car door. Jackie followed her out, a pissed off look on her face. Jackie had been through enough lately-and adding a fender bender to the list was not something she wanted to do.

Both girls stormed up to driver's side of the Alfa Romeo. An aging man with gray hair in a leisure suit sat inside, rubbing his temples. The man saw looked up and saw the two young women glaring at him. The man motioned for them to step back, which they did, and he opened the door.

"Sorry girls. The brakes have been a little off for a while. I guess we'll need to exchange information now so-" Donna's eyes went wide and she didn't stick around to hear the rest. She already knew this man.

Grabbing onto Jackie's hand she pulled her back to the car as she ran as fast as she could. Pushing Jackie into her seat and running back around to her seat, Donna sped off without hesitation.

"Donna! What are you doing? What's going on?" Jackie screeched as she turned around to look at the confused man they had left behind. The man was scratching his head and looking at the fast moving car.

"That's the man Jackie! I know it!" Donna muttered as she pressed harder on the gas pedal. She looked back, speeding until the man and the car became a dot on the road.

"What man?" Jackie questioned, a befuddled look covering her face. What was Donna talking about? She had never seen that man before, not in person, or on the news.

"Jackie...that was Larry! That's Sam's husband!"

**AN/ Yep got nothing to say besides thanks, and please leave reviews-they tell me what you like and what you want to happen!**


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